My new mare is 6 and was only under saddle with a trainer for a few months when I purchased her.
A month after I purchased her, we found out she was around 9 months pregnant, so I stopped riding her. She has since had a little filly who now 5 months old, and ready to wean.
I will be moving my mate to another farm and we will be restarting our riding.
She's at a nice weight, but no muscle tone. I will be using a trainer, but I'd like to get some muscle on her before I get on her.
She will have a few hours of turnout( which will be much less than where she was at with her filly).
What type of ground work can I do to build muscle? I do not want to use draw reins on her.
Lunge with her saddle on or off? Trot on lunge over poles?
What's a safe time frame of getting her back from weaning and moving to a new barn, before I get on her and just walk, and a small amount of trot?
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Need restarting help/suggestions
Re: Need restarting help/suggestions
What I've done to build strength on a very weak horse:
single and double lunging (on flat, on hills, and over cavalletti)--I do lots of figures and spirals and transitions, depending on the strength and fitness. I also introduce side reins (once she's stretching forward and down and accepting the bit without them). Depending on my goal will indicate whether its with a saddle, a surcingle or naked. With a young horse, I'm careful not to do too lunging in one week or at one time, since all the circles are hard on them.
long-lining (on flat, hills--and trails! I've been introduced to that lately and it's awesome--and over cavalletti)
in-hand work
ponying off a safe horse (if you have one)
lots of handwalking/trotting
stationary stretches
As far as a safe time frame...I think it more depends on her mental state than anything (provided she's already a decent weight and is accepting the workload you are asking her to do). Once she seems settled at the barn and without her baby, I don't see why not (some mares can care less when their baby leaves). You might look into a conditioning program that eventers use to leg up their horses to get an idea of how long building muscling takes. With my weak mare, I took 9 months on the ground after she weaned her baby starting with only 5 min of work at a time, but she was a different case (very skinny and sick and hadn't yet been under saddle).
Edited to add: if you can provide as much turnout as possible, that will help her mental adjustment as well as she'll be able to help maintain (at least some) of her own fitness as well.
single and double lunging (on flat, on hills, and over cavalletti)--I do lots of figures and spirals and transitions, depending on the strength and fitness. I also introduce side reins (once she's stretching forward and down and accepting the bit without them). Depending on my goal will indicate whether its with a saddle, a surcingle or naked. With a young horse, I'm careful not to do too lunging in one week or at one time, since all the circles are hard on them.
long-lining (on flat, hills--and trails! I've been introduced to that lately and it's awesome--and over cavalletti)
in-hand work
ponying off a safe horse (if you have one)
lots of handwalking/trotting
stationary stretches
As far as a safe time frame...I think it more depends on her mental state than anything (provided she's already a decent weight and is accepting the workload you are asking her to do). Once she seems settled at the barn and without her baby, I don't see why not (some mares can care less when their baby leaves). You might look into a conditioning program that eventers use to leg up their horses to get an idea of how long building muscling takes. With my weak mare, I took 9 months on the ground after she weaned her baby starting with only 5 min of work at a time, but she was a different case (very skinny and sick and hadn't yet been under saddle).
Edited to add: if you can provide as much turnout as possible, that will help her mental adjustment as well as she'll be able to help maintain (at least some) of her own fitness as well.
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